Planning and Building Services

Planning and Building Services prepare and update the City’s Official Plan that guides Guelph’s growth and development, including preservation of the natural environment and cultural heritage resources.

We regulate the use of land through the Zoning Bylaw, provide professional planning land use and development advice and information to our stakeholders, and ensure new development meets the land use goals and objectives of the Official Plan and is consistent with provincial policy.

This team reviews and processes development applications, engages citizens in planning applications, issues building permits and conducts building inspections as required under the Building Code Act and Ontario Building Code, administers and enforces various City bylaws including the Zoning Bylaw, Sign Bylaw and Swimming Pool Bylaw, as well as administers termite control, backflow prevention and sewage system maintenance inspection programs.

Planning for growth and development contributes to a sustainable, creative and smart local economy that is connected to regional and global markets and supports shared prosperity for everyone enhancing our Powering our Future priority of the plan.

This department’s work supports the Sustaining our Future priority through mitigating climate change by reducing Guelph’s carbon footprint. Our Official Plan vision is to plan for and design an increasingly sustainable city as Guelph grows. Further, we help our customers build Guelph’s communities and buildings to be inclusive of all residents and visitors.

Improving customer service through the Building Partnerships committees’ coordinated leadership, direction and advancement of continuous improvement activities to deliver on the City’s Building Partnerships pledge supports our Working Together for our Future priority.

$123,418 or 3.4% net increase in budget in 2021 due to:

• $71,800 increase in Building Services building permit revenues based on a proposed fee increases between 0 per cent and 4.8 per cent in accordance with the approved automatic fee indexing methodology as part of report IDE-2019-43.
• $115,300 approved increase in salary and benefit costs for a Planner position in order to meet new legislative timelines; application development fee revenues have not been adjusted however, will be reviewed and incorporated in future years to reflect the legislated cost impact and also the increased staff time due to complexity of infill development.
• $25,250 increase in corporate support costs.
• The remaining increase is inflationary in nature.

$345,948 net increase in operating budget change from 2022 to 2024 due to:

• Addition of two Planner positions in order to meet new legislative timelines as a result of Bill 108; application development fee revenues have not been adjusted however, will be reviewed and incorporated in future years to reflect the legislated cost impact and also the increased staff time due to complexity of infill development.
• Addition of two Building Inspector positions to accommodate projected growth. These positions are part of the Ontario Building Code Administrative budget and building permit fee revenue has increased to offset the costs.

Budget requests

• BR 813 – Planner